If this was a mystery thriller, it would seem that the pace of the story is building momentum and that we are nearing the climax of the story. Except that how it will end seems to depend on OUR ACTIONS rather than reactions.
First let us try and piece together the puzzle, the latest pieces of which are:
- The investigation of the P6.4B worth of shabu which has been repeatedly sidetracked and has turned into a circus
- The revelation of the numerous bank accounts with large amounts of money of Andres Bautista not reflected in his SALN and the deposit of these, and several PCGG accounts in a small development bank
3, The consecutive brutal murders of an apparently innocent minor and a young student and almost certainly a still missing 14 year old by Kalookan police under rather peculiar circumstances - The filing of impeachment complaints against Chief Justice Sereno
- The possible filing of impeachment complaints against Ombudsman
- The filing of an ethics complaint against Senator Trillanes which may result in his expulsion from the Senate.
The conspicuous silence of the CHR in the light of #3 which seems to have something to do with their budget for 2018 is also rather noteworthy given their previous dogged tenacity.
Let us try to connect the dots.
THE CIRCUS
What started out ostensibly as a Senate investigation into the aborted smuggling of P6.4B worth of shabu through the Bureau of Customs has mutated into an endless series of diversions from its stated objective mainly by HEARSAY testimony by a witness whose credibility, character and motives appear quite questionable, to say the least.
WHAT HAVE THE NBI AND THE PDEA INVESTIGATIONS ACHIEVED IN THE PAST 3 MONTHS?
To date, the apparent lack of progress by the NBI and the PDEA in the intensive investigation a case of this magnitude would require is appalling. Instead, all we have are he said/she said accusations and denials, endless speculation and insinuation and naming of persons yet to be properly identified and located. Despite the 3 months that have passed, neither the NBI or PDEA have even the slightest clue as to who "Jack" and "Tita Nani" are and were it not for the Senate investigation, would seem not to have even an inkling as to their existence! Iy certainly does not speak well of their investigative skills if they have to depend on the Senate to provide the real name of Tita Nani or are unable to determine the identity of Jack beyond saying that it would be easier if they had a last name!
Worse, the only person in custody at the moment is a simple warehouse man whose only participation is that he was ordered to receive whatever was delivered to the warehouse! Why it had to take the Senate Committee to ask them to file charges against the Chinese shipper and consignee is astounding, to say the least.
WHY IS THE HOW MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE WHO?
The process of how the shipment was smuggled, while important, is not really the point of the matter as it was simply done in EXACTLY THE SAME WAY as every other smuggled shipment of anything has come through. It is more than likely that
those who allowed the shipment to pass through unhindered had no idea that it contained drugs, otherwise, they would have surely asked much more than the usual "fee" assuming that they would have done it knowingly.
The same cannot be said for either the shipper and even more for the rather well-connected consignee who seemed not even to be considered as suspects or the even subjects of intensive scrutiny by the NBI and PDEA. In other countries, they would surely be the main focus of the investigation and almost certainly already under detention and facing charges.
Has it even been determined if they had received similar shipments in the past and if so, how many and how often? This is what has bearing if stopping the smuggling of drugs by this particular source is the point.
Only by determining the origin - WHO caused the shabu to be sent - and WHO was supposed to receive and distribute it can the point of the matter be settled. The rest can be addressed later.
To stop ALL forms of smuggling is an entirely different matter altogether.
MUDDLING THE ISSUE?
However, instead of pursuing the WHO of the mattter, Senator Lacson made a sensational privileged speech about the corruption at Customs, conveniently accusing those appointed less than a year ago to clean-up a rotten system that has existed since time immemorial not just of being remiss in their duties but of actual complicity based solely as usual on hearsay and "what everyone knows"! Curiously enough, the response of the person he accused, then Commissioner Faeldon that Lacson's son was also into smuggling seems to have taken the winds out of Lacson's sails and although he did make the expected denial, he has been rather conspicuously silent ever since.
This was then pursued by Senator Trillanes in a tortuous attempt to link the son and son-in-law of the President to the drug shipment. The circus has even gotten to the point that an ethics complaint has to be filed because a Senator purposely elicits what is obviously hearsay testimony and insists it is hard evidence. Yet, the connection to the shabu shipment of the persons that the Senator insists on implicating is even more tenuous as the witness has testified that he was dealing with another group at the time of shipment and has declared his own testimony as hearsay.
IN THE MEANTIME
Just as all this was starting to heat up, in a totally different arena, the wife of COMELEC Commissioner Andres Bautista made some earth-shaking revelations about her discovery of 32 bank accounts involving huge amounts of money deposited in a small development bank and properties which were undeclared by her husband in her SALN. Further investigation revealed that he also had opened up accounts for the PCGG in the same bank when he used to head the PCGG. However, after the initial outcry in the media, this much more significant issue than the shabu smuggling because of its even more serious implications, discreetly faded from the media.
THE SENSELESS BRAZEN MURDERS OF YOUNG INNOCENTS BY KALOOKAN COPS
As if to erase from the public mind the travails and scandal of COMELEC Commissioner Bautista, what appears to be the deliberately public arrest and murder of an innocent minor by 3 Kalookan policemen without regard for possible witnesses to the crime under pretext of an anti-drug operation. This conveniently occurred a few days before the anniversary of the death of Ninoy Aquino. This was milked for all its worth by the Opposition in what appeared to be a bid to generate massive indignation which would hopefully climax in another People Power revolution on the memorable date.
After some rather bizzare antics which included an unprecedented trooping to the wake of the Opposition Senators, attempts to bribe the family of Kian de los Santos with P2M to parade his body on EDSA and the technical kidnapping of Sen. Risa Hontiveros of minors who witnessed the murder, the agenda was abruptly and irreparably derailed by the visit of Kian's parents to Malacañang.
As the outrage against Kian's death abruptly died down, the next startling news was that the impeachment initiative against Supreme Court Chief Justice Sereno had finally gained the support of a significant number of congressmen with the news that at least two fellow Justices were willing to testify against her.
In what seems almost like a tit-for-tat competition to grab the headlines, just a few days later, it was discovered that another minor and a college student went missing at almost the same time as the murder of Kian. This time, the student, who was found in a morgue 10 days after he went missing together with a 14 year old boy, was shot to death, again by Kalookan cops, while resisting arrest after allegedly holding-up a taxi driver on the other side of town. A couple of sachets of shabu and marijuana were claimed to have been found on the body of the student who was not known to either smoke or drink, much less take drugs. Just recently, the boy he was with was found with 30 stab wounds in a morgue in a provincial city about 100 kilometers away. While the reaction of the Opposition this time was remarkably much more muted, the deaths were again predictably paraded as examples of the bloodthirsty bent of the PNP.
What is most remarkable is the fact that to this day, no plausible motives or reasons except for highly implausible police reports by the admitted police perpetrators have been determined. Given the sudden, rather "timely" spate of these killings and the Opposition's inevitable flaunting as evidence of the "homicidal tendencies" of the PNP, the reaction of the public to these latest, similar murders has been more of suspicion as to the true motives and the identities of the real masterminds of the crimes.
There seems to be a renewed ruthless, determined and concerted drive to discredit the PNP and the President by using the murders of these three innocent young people by cops to arouse public anger against them. This is after similar attempts to use the deaths of drug lords and pushers did not gain traction and lost steam.
It is noteworthy that the news of the murders of the student and the 14 year old did not seem to elicit the same outrage as that of Kian's although the masterminds behind them appear to be the same. It seems that the general public has caught on and no longer wishes to be an unwitting participant in the game. Hopefully, this will discourage them from pursuing this angle of attack.
BACK TO SONG AND DANCE
The long-awaited appearance of Paolo Duterte and Mans Carpio in the Senate investigation into the P6.4B shabu smuggle simply served as yet more striking proof that Trillanes needs to be expelled from the Senate ASAP. Making lurid accusations, insinuations and conclusions which had absolutely nothing to do with the subject of the investigation, Trillanes made Gordon look like a helpless circus Ringmaster. Clueless to the max, the Senators had the temerity to hold former BOC Commissioner Faeldon in contempt for being smart enough to decline to be made a dummy for clowns to play with.
SO LET'S FORGET ALL THAT
In the meantime, not a peep in the news about Sereno and Morales' impeachments and COMELEC Commissioner Andres Bautista's reckoning seems to have drifted off far beyond the horizon.
Philippine politics at it's finest! The best is yet to come!
Wait for the ending! Coming soon!